Runx1 alleviates osteoarthritis progression in aging mice

ABSTRACT

With rates growing quickly with age, osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common cause of chronic disability in aging persons. The discomfort and reduced motion associated with osteoarthritis have a significant impact on quality of life, and there is no known solution. Runt-related transcription factor 1(Runx1) has been shown to play a protective role in the development of osteoarthritis by promoting chondrogenesis. We had created models of ageing mice with osteoarthritis by anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) and analyzed the effects of intra-articular injection of adeno-associated virus/Runx1 (AAV/Runx1) on the models. The results showed that the AAV/Runx1-group maintained better articular cartilage integrity and retained more proteoglycan than the OA group after injection of AAV-Runx1. The markers related to pathological changes in cartilage were downregulated, while the markers related to physiological changes in cartilage were upregulated. This suggests that Runx1 may impede OA progression on the knee joint of ageing mice, potentially playing a protective role in OA and becoming a probable treatment target for osteoarthritis among ageing patients in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Osteoarthritis
• Runx1
• aging
• mice
• articular cartilage

Acknowledgements

We acknowledged Qiang Guo (State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University) for his excellent assistance in the uCT experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 82001062 and 81371136], China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2022M722249].